Damaged cables playing havoc with communications
Many Northwestel Inc. customers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) and B.C. may have had their telecommunications services disrupted Monday and again today.
Many Northwestel Inc. customers in the Yukon, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) and B.C. may have had their telecommunications services disrupted Monday and again today.
At about 3 p.m.Monday, a fibre optic cable was damaged by a road construction crew working between Beaverlodge and Wembly in northern Alberta.
Customers in the N.W.T. saw Internet and Latitude Wireless data services affected.
Those in the Yukon and B.C. experienced problems with long-distance telephone service to the south and all Bell Mobility as well as Internet and Latitude Wireless data services.
"As long as you were calling within the Yukon, there was no problem,” Anne Kennedy, Northwestel's director of communications, said today.
But those calling the south from the Yukon or B.C. likely received a message indicating that all circuits are busy.
Customers in all three jurisdictions could still go online, but Internet service was slow and congested.
By 6 p.m., crews had fused the glass fibres of the damaged cable, restoring services on a temporary basis.
Permanent repairs will be completed in a few days and should not cause any disruption to services.
A similar loss of telecommunications service occurred some time around 11:00 this morning.
In the Yukon and B.C., long-distance telephone service to the south, Internet service and Bell Mobility services have all been disrupted.
In the N.W.T., Internet service is slow.
Latitude Wireless voice service outside Whitehorse is working but data services will be slow or will appear to be out of service due to network congestion.
Northwestel Latitude Wireless voice service is working but data services will be slow or will appear to be out of service.
The problems were ongoing as of press time this afternoon.
The source of the disruption appears to be another cut fibre optic cable in the same areas of northern Alberta, but this hasn't been confirmed, Kennedy said late this morning.
She said Northwestel was waiting for a damage report from the company that owns the cable.
That company has dispatched a work crew to drive the stretch of highway in the area to find the source of the outage.
Comments (4)
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Anonymous on Aug 11, 2010 at 11:34 pm
This is getting ridiculous. We are charged unreasonable fees for a service that is constantly disrupted. Is anyone suing the company that cut the cable? I know it affected my job seriously as I need to be able to contact people long distance. Northwestel doesn't care, the company that damaged the cable doesn't care, it's pathetic. God I wish we could have some competition move into the Territory to give us a more reliable srevice.
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Don McKenzie on Aug 11, 2010 at 2:35 am
There is a lot of road conctruction going on near Beaverlodge/Wembley, someone may have messed up with their Ground Disturbance practices, and not have had locators sweep the area.
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Chris Klassen on Aug 10, 2010 at 9:01 am
Does anyone think it more than a little odd that damage in Alberta makes it nearly impossible to use a Cell phone in Whitehorse? Glad we all have those huge phone bills.
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JC on Aug 10, 2010 at 8:12 am
But notice Northwestel always bills us the full amount every month, no matter how much of our service is effected. Ahhh. when you have the monopoly, you have the power.